UK Broadband Internet Service Provider News: 2006/10

UK broadband Internet service provider news and the latest broadband company press releases. Access the latest new broadband deals and broadband service updates, including broadband news from BT, AOL, Tiscali, Eclipse, Orange, Utility Warehouse, TalkTalk, Virgin & Telewest.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Biscit Introduces Phone and Broadband Subsidies for Students and Senior Citizens

Biscit today announces phone and broadband subsidies for students and senior citizens. The announcement is aimed at strengthening Biscit's call last week for government to support the voice and data needs of these important socio-economic groups in a similar way to education, travel and heating subsidies.

Phone and broadband bundles have become must-have services for consumers across the country. The first were introduced by Talk Talk and Biscit earlier this year and quickly became flagship offerings for both providers.

Biscit's voice and broadband bundles are branded freeMAX. freeMAX Home is ideal for senior citizens, allowing them to keep in touch with family and friends at minimum cost, and also to be part of the always-connected online interactive community. For just £18.00* per month, they'll receive 720 anytime call minutes to landlines each month, up to 8Mbps broadband and a generous 2GB data download allowance.

freeMAX Unlimited is perfect for students living off campus. For just £27.00* per month, they'll receive 2400 anytime call minutes to UK landlines each month, up to 8Mbps broadband, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited call time to 2 nominated landlines in Australia and New Zealand, certain European countries, or in Canada and the USA.

Importantly for students and senior citizens joining the freeMAX wave is that they'll never receive another line rental bill from BT; with Biscit, they'll save £11.00 per month, or £132 per year, in line rental charges alone.

Students wishing to subscribe to freeMAX Home or Unlimited should fax a copy of their student card quoting reference "EDU 10" to Biscit's fax number 07092 111511. Senior citizens should fax a copy of their travel card to the same number quoting reference "SC 10." Terms and conditions apply.

Prices include a 10% discount for students and senior citizens only and are inclusive of VAT. Full details of Biscit's freeMAX services are available on its website www.biscit.net. Details are also available on the website of the recently acquired V21 business … www.v21.co.uk

Labels: biscit-broadband

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Britain’s proper copper rip off

Independent monitoring of UK broadband providers has revealed that thousands of consumers are not receiving the speed of service they think they are paying for.

All British internet service providers, except ntl Telewest, use a copper network dating back to the 1870s. Due to technological limitations of phone lines, which were originally only designed to carry voice calls, broadband speeds decrease the further away a customer is from the telephone exchange. In contrast, fibre optic cable networks are designed specifically for high-speed data transfer, meaning cable offers faster and more consistent download speeds.

Many of the DSL (digital subscriber line) providers using BT's network now offer an up to 8Mb broadband service as standard. It is estimated*, however, that only around one third of the population can actually receive that top speed.

Recently the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) rapped some DSL broadband providers over their up to 8Mb claims, which suggested most customers could access that kind of speed.

Independent industry data** now shows the fastest cable broadband service (up to 10Mb) provides downloads three times faster than the DSL industry average, when comparing maximum download speeds over a month. Based on these statistics, a cable customer could theoretically download the entire Godfather trilogy while a DSL user would only get part one.

Howard Watson, chief technology officer of ntl Telewest, commented: "Perhaps DSL broadband providers should be clearer when promoting an up to 8Mb service. As the ASA recently highlighted, many consumers are paying for an up to 8Mb connection, but only get a fraction of that speed. Cable is designed to offer high-speed broadband access, which means customers receive a more consistent service, rather than relying on a postcode lottery."

Monday, October 23, 2006

NewNet Home LITE packages now enjoy flexible bandwidth

Broadband users with a NewNet Home LITE package will benefit from flexible bandwidth allowing them to increase their monthly quota from 3GB up to 15GB. Customers that choose a NewNet Home LITE package with 3GB monthly bandwidth allowance can now extend their usage up to 7GB, 11GB or 15GB on a monthly basis depending on their usage requirements, without pre-booking or pre-paying. (See additional notes to editors for new bandwidth billing).

Users can continue to enjoy using their broadband even if they exceed the monthly quota of 3GB and need not worry about pre-booking bandwidth or upgrading their package, instead they will be billed for the extra bandwidth they use.

John Mobley, NewNet plc, Managing Director said: NewNet offers one of the most competitive broadband packages on the market. A Home LITE broadband package with flexible bandwidth will help our customers to enjoy the benefits of broadband by allowing them to flex their bandwidth as they need without switching services.

Labels: newnet-broadband

AOL launches digital photography competition

AOL has launched a photo competition in the UK to capture the essence of what it means to share. The AOL Pictures digital photography competition celebrates the way the internet can be used to share experiences with other people through photo albums. So, whether it is sharing a joke, a secret or even a piece of cake, photographers are invited to enter their pictures at http://info.aol.co.uk/pictures/competition/

The competition, which runs until 12 November 2006, is open to UK residents aged over 18 who subscribe to AOL or have a free AOL Webmail account. The winner will receive a three-night trip to New York, £500 spending money, and a top of the range SLR camera, and two runners up will each receive £150 of AOL Pictures vouchers. The results will be announced on 17 November 2006 and entries will be published in an AOL Pictures gallery.

An online marketing campaign to encourage internet users to enter the competition will include paid search and display advertising, as well as promotion on the AOL subscription service and the AOL portal.

David Gilbey, Vice President of Online Customer Experience at AOL UK, says: "We know from our regular 'Photo Of The Month' contests for AOL subscribers that there are some very talented photographers out there. Now, with AOL Pictures available on the Web too, any internet user can enter this competition easily and quickly and show the world their flair for taking photos. We're looking forward to seeing how people capture the concept of 'sharing' in a photograph."

AOL Pictures is a comprehensive digital photo service for consumers who want an easy way to store, organise, share, print and protect their images online. It is available free in the UK to AOL subscribers and registered users of AOL Webmail. With the recent addition of public galleries, AOL Pictures now integrates the benefits of sharing digital photos privately through email or sharing them with anyone on the Web, conveniently from one place. AOL Pictures can be found at http://aolpictures.aol.co.uk or AOL Keyword: Photos.

Labels: aol-broadband

BT launches free virtual vault to protect the nation's digital treasures

Broadband users can now store all their digital valuables online for free with BT’s new Digital Vault.

Users can keep everything from movies, music, emails and address books to photos, documents and presentations in a single secure virtual deposit box – protecting it against PC ‘crashes’, theft or accidental deletion.

Customers can access everything in an instant from any computer connected to the internet, giving them the freedom to look at family snaps, listen to favourite music tracks or watch a video, from anywhere in the world.

Gavin Patterson, managing director of consumer, BT Retail, said: “Millions of us now routinely store our memories, thoughts and valuable content on our PCs. For example, more than half of PC owners now store their photos on their PCs.*

“To lose this information in the event of a ‘crash’ or theft would be devastating. BT Digital Vault offers a, simple and safe solution.”

Personal data is encrypted when transmitted and then stored in a secure data centre so customers can be comfortable in the knowledge that when they are not online everything is being kept safely under digital lock and key.

Although designed to keep personal data away from prying eyes, BT Digital Vault allows users to share their data files. For example, customers can create a photo album slide show in their personal vault, and then send an email to family and friends inviting them to view slide show.

BT Digital Vault Basic, which is free, is ideal for users who want to manually upload, share and remotely access a small number of files. If automatic back up and more storage is required, then customers can choose BT Digital Vault for just £4.99 a month.

The £4.99 a month service provides BT Digital Vault Backup Manager which removes the hassle of backing-up. Customers choose which computer folders they want to back up once, and the Backup Manager will then automatically backup, the files each time they are changed or more files added.

BT Digital Vault is available to everyone and has a 20GB storage capacity so customers can store hundreds of photos, files, music and videos. Anyone signing up before January 8, 2007 gets the first two months free.

BT Digital Vault Basic has been available to BT Total Broadband customers from the start of October, but from today is available free to any customer, irrespective of broadband provider. As an introductory offer, all customers signing up before January 8, 2007will get 2GB storage capacity. From January 9, 2007 new customers signing who do not have BT Total Broadband will get 1GB storage capacity while BT Total Broadband customers will continue to be offered 2GB.

Patterson added: “With broadband increasingly becoming an integral part of our lives more - more of us are moving important parts of our lives online. However, people are often unsure about how to keep their online data safe. The beauty of BT Digital Vault is that it is very safe and very simple to use and from a known, trusted brand like BT. All you need is a broadband connection, your username and password and we do all the rest.

“If you want to share your holiday snaps with a friend, retrieve important files, or backup files on your laptop when you’re away from home, it’s all possible with BT Digital Vault.”

BT broadband

Labels: bt-broadband

Thursday, October 19, 2006

freedom2surf to offer television over broadband

freedom2surf, is the first ISP to sign a partnership with IPTV provider Aggregator, offering on-demand television over broadband (TVoBB) to its customers. The two companies are working together to enable customers to enjoy niche, special interest programmes over a broadband Internet connection.

Aggregator's TVoBB services will create a new UK pay-TV platform that will serve multiple devices including PCs and hybrid set-top boxes. Aggregator's on-demand services allow the delivery of niche content to specialist interest communities that are currently underserved by the television market. Initially offering programmes for Russian expatriates living in the UK, Aggregator will then focus on subjects such as martial arts, Anime and motor sport.

Working closely with forward thinking ISPs such as freedom2surf, Aggregator will enable its customers to watch programmes on demand and, where appropriate, automatically download content off-peak to ensure high quality downloads and minimal disruption to the broadband network.

"The changing television landscape has brought non-traditional players into the digital media industry, offering specialist content that is in tune with customers needs," says Martin Goswami, co-founder and CEO of Aggregator. "As part of offering services over the Internet, it's essential that we work closely with ISPs. We are delighted to have already started this process with freedom2surf, who understand the challenges we face and have web-savvy customers that are keen to explore TVoBB."

"TVoBB is one of the most exciting areas in the Internet and communications industry and we certainly want to be part of it," says Maria Cappella, managing director of freedom2surf. "We are working closely with Aggregator to trial services with our customer base and find ways of offering a consistent, high quality service for broadband television customers."

Labels: freedom2surf-broadband

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

NewNet Broadband gift vouchers available

You can now order a NewNet Broadband gift voucher in £10, £25, £50 and £100 denominations, available right up to the eleventh hour on Christmas Eve, perfect for that last minute gift idea. NewNet vouchers can be used as payment against any NewNet Broadband service, be it a new order or any recurring charges if you already enjoy NewNet services.

John Mobley, NewNet plc MD commented last year the majority of Xmas shopping was conducted online, and so what better gift than an online voucher which can be used to pay for fast Broadband service from NewNet. We expect huge demand for these vouchers which will be available to order from early October.

The vouchers are Ideal for companies looking to reward staff or for busy professionals looking for an easy to find easy to deliver and highly valued gift for their friends and family and there is no environmental impact with packaging or production, the vouchers appear as an attractive download certificate.

Labels: newnet-broadband

Monday, October 16, 2006

freedom2surf to offer television over broadband with Aggregator

freedom2surf is the first ISP to sign a partnership with IPTV provider Aggregator, offering on-demand television over broadband (TVoBB) to its customers. The two companies are working together to enable customers to enjoy niche, special interest programmes over a broadband Internet connection.

Aggregator’s TVoBB services will create a new UK pay-TV platform that will serve multiple devices including PCs and hybrid set-top boxes. Aggregator’s on-demand services allow the delivery of niche content to specialist interest communities that are currently underserved by the television market. Initially offering programmes for Russian expatriates living in the UK through its Mo¸TV portal, Aggregator will launch a number of further services in the coming months targeted at a range of special interests.

Working closely with forward thinking ISPs such as freedom2surf, Aggregator will enable its customers to watch programmes on demand and, where appropriate, automatically download content off-peak to ensure high quality downloads and minimal disruption to the broadband network.

“The changing television landscape has brought non-traditional players into the digital media industry, offering specialist content that is in tune with customers needs,” says Martin Goswami, co-founder and CEO of Aggregator. “As part of offering services over the Internet, it’s essential that we work closely with ISPs. We are delighted to have already started this process with freedom2surf, who understand the challenges we face and have web-savvy customers that are keen to explore TVoBB.”

“TVoBB is one of the most exciting areas in the Internet and communications industry and we certainly want to be part of it,” says Maria Cappella, managing director of freedom2surf. “We are working closely with Aggregator to trial services with our customer base and find ways of offering a consistent, high quality service for broadband television customers.”

About Aggregator

Aggregator sources, packages and delivers television programming over broadband platforms internationally, delivering enhanced TV services to targeted audiences/communities via a range of digital devices.

Aggregator is building discrete, individually branded niche TV communities via the PC, which will be aggregated under a consolidated brand when its Freeview/TV over broadband (TVoBB) set-top box is launched in the UK in early 2007.

About freedom2surf

freedom2surf), part of the Pipex Communications Group, is one of the UK's leading Internet service providers. The company serves a targeted customer base of Internet professionals, at home or in business that appreciate the value of advanced technology, speed and above all reliability in their ISP. freedom2surf believes that Internet privacy and security should be an integral part of the online experience.

freedom2surf provides leading support for all the major Internet components, from ADSL broadband high-speed connectivity, to offering the latest services from web publishing, email and interactive entertainment to high volume electronic commerce business architectures. freedom2surf was launched in 1997 and is based in Aylesbury, UK. It was ranked number 22 in the Sunday Times Microsoft Technology Track 100 in October 2005 and was named 'Top Product of 2005' in October's edition of PC Advisor.

Labels: freedom2surf-broadband

Thursday, October 12, 2006

'Spam buster' system unleashed by BT

BT is taking a pioneering role in the global battle against spam by implementing the world’s first fully-automated ‘spam buster’ system to track down and tackle professional spammers and ‘botnet’-infected customers on the BT broadband network.

Around 80 per cent of e-mails on the internet, equivalent to 6.5 billion emails a day, are spam. These unwanted emails are not only generated by professional spammers, but also by ‘botnets’ - where the PCs of unsuspecting customers are secretly infected with rogue software to form a robotic network that generates vast quantities of unwanted spam . These compromised machines can be used in turn to attack other PCs and websites.

The new spam detection system selected by BT – Content Forensics™ from StreamShield Networks – scans millions of e-mails a day, providing BT with detailed reports on the location and size of spam-related problems originating from the BT network. Not only does the StreamShield Networks’ solution save time and resources by automatically identifying spam problems, it can prevent valuable bandwidth being wasted on unwanted spam and virus infected traffic.

BT’s Customer Security team can then take immediate action against professional spam operators, which could include terminating rogue accounts and adding offending IP addresses to industry-wide blacklists.

At the same time, BT can focus more effort on contacting and helping customers rid their PCs of botnet infections – reducing the likelihood of e-mail traffic from BT networks being blocked by other providers and third-party e-mail systems.

“In a world-first, we’re turning the tables on professional spammers and cutting off this scourge of the internet at source”, said Stratis Scleparis, CTO at BT Retail. “We are delighted to work with StreamShield Networks on this innovative approach which both tracks down and reduces spam messages on our network, and at the same time helps our customers overcome the threat of infection by bots.”

“Our Content Forensics solution has been developed with large ISPs such as BT in mind and delivers a powerful solution to the problem of professional spammers and botnets on ISP’s broadband networks”, comments Simon Gawne, CEO StreamShield Networks. “We are excited that BT has selected our solution after extensive testing in their network and we look forward to working with them in the future.”

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Carphone Warehouse to acquire Time Warner's AOL Internet

Carphone Warehouse to acquire Time Warner's AOL Internet access business in the UK for £370 million. AOL to provide co-branded audience services and manage online advertising sales for combined customer base through a revenue-sharing agreement.

Carphone Warehouse and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) have reached agreement for Carphone Warehouse to acquire AOL's Internet access business in the UK for a cash consideration of £370m ($688m) funded via an extension of existing debt facilities. Completion is subject to EU competition authority clearance and is expected to take place by 31 December 2006.

Under the agreement, Carphone Warehouse will acquire AOL's Internet access customer base in the UK as well as the supporting management and infrastructure (the "Access" business). For its part, AOL will provide co-branded portal, content and other audience services and will manage the online advertising sales for Carphone Warehouse's combined broadband customer base through a revenue-sharing agreement.

About AOL in the UK

AOL is one of the largest Internet service providers in the UK, with approximately 2.1m ISP customers. On completion, it is anticipated that this will comprise 1.5m broadband customers and 0.6m dial-up customers.

In the year to December 2005, the assets to be acquired generated revenues of £442.1m and an operating profit of £14.1m. Gross assets at December 2005 were £77.9m.

Rationale for the transaction

Since 2003, Carphone Warehouse has been building a significant presence in the UK residential telecoms market. Through organic growth and acquisition, it has grown to a base of 2.7m voice customers in under four years, giving it approximately 11% of the residential calls market. In April 2006, Carphone Warehouse launched a major new initiative, offering free broadband to its voice customers, and has attracted 625,000 applications for this service over the last six months.

The acquisition of the Access business will give Carphone Warehouse an enlarged broadband customer base of approximately 2m customers, making it the third largest broadband provider in the UK. Over time, the additional scale is likely to create significant operating efficiencies in relation to network infrastructure and marketing costs.

In addition, the commercial agreement in relation to the Audience business provides Carphone Warehouse with a ready-made platform via which it can generate material incremental value from its large and growing customer base. The management time and investment cost involved in replicating the Audience business model would be significant, so the structure of the deal allows Carphone Warehouse to accelerate its plans without the requirement to build further internal resource.

For Time Warner and AOL, this transaction marks an important step in positioning AOL's audience business to take further advantage of the rapid growth in online advertising - in keeping with AOL's overall worldwide strategy. In addition to exiting its Internet access businesses in Germany, France and the UK, AOL will now have a stronger platform for providing portal, content and other audience services, on a stand-alone as well as a co-branded basis, and managing online advertising sales.

Financial impact

The total cash consideration is £370m, of which £250m will be paid on completion and the balance paid in three instalments over the following 18 months. The consideration is being funded by an extension of existing bank facilities.

The transaction is due to complete by 31 December 2006 and is subject to EU competition authority clearance. At this stage it is anticipated that the acquisition will increase current year pre-tax profits by approximately £10m (subject to completion by 31 December 2006), and next year's pre-tax profits by £30-40m.

Commenting on the acquisition, Charles Dunstone, CEO of Carphone Warehouse, said:

"The acquisition of AOL's UK Internet access business is transformational for our broadband business. This deal gives us significant scale to complement the rapid organic growth of our free broadband proposition. In addition, the joint development of AOL's already successful audience platform will bring us new advertising and content revenues in a proven and low risk manner."

Dick Parsons, Chairman and CEO of Time Warner, said:

"This agreement completes the restructuring of our AOL Europe businesses that both advances AOL's strategic transition to an advertising-supported business model and underscores Time Warner's commitment to shaping its portfolio of assets to drive the greatest growth possible. On both fronts - as well as across our company - we're successfully building critical momentum to the benefit of our shareholders. As a leading provider of audience services in Europe, AOL will be better positioned than ever to continue to grow a cohesive online advertising business across a region that's key to our future progress."

Jon Miller, Chairman and CEO of AOL LLC, said:

"For a decade, AOL has played an important part in the growth of the online medium in the UK. Under the partnership announced today, AOL will expand the size of its audience in the UK as a Web-services business. This is an ideal outcome for AOL, for Time Warner, and the customers we serve."

Labels: talktalk-broadband

Continued momentum in Broadband, with improved customer service

Carphone Warehouse today announces its second quarter trading update for the 13 weeks to 30 September 2006.

Second quarter highlights:

Total connections up 34.0% to 2.38m
Subscription connections up 16.3% to 0.96m
66 net new stores opened, taking the portfolio to 1,921 stores
625,000 applications for free broadband, with 421,000 live as at 30 September
370 exchanges unbundled, with a further 476 handed over by Openreach
Updated financial guidance for the year to March 2007

Approximately £20m of additional costs as a result of strong demand for free broadband
Now expecting broadband start-up costs of approximately £70m in the current year
No impact anticipated in March 2008 financial year
Strong performance in Distribution and Fixed Line operations to boost underlying profitability

Charles Dunstone, Chief Executive Officer, said:

"We have had a very strong first half's trading. The Distribution business has performed very well and we have had an exceptional customer response to our free broadband launch. I am also pleased to say that our average call centre answering times are now among the lowest in the industry, as measured by independently-conducted market research.

"The unprecedented take-up of our free broadband offer means we have accelerated our customer service recruitment plans and incurred additional wholesale broadband costs. We now expect to incur start-up broadband losses of around £70 million in the current year, compared to our original guidance of £50 million. However, our underlying performance in the first half has been ahead of our expectations, and we expect interim headline pre-tax profits, before the impact of our broadband and Virgin Mobile France operations, to be up 50% year-on-year."

Distribution

Total connections grew by 34.0% to 2.38m year-on-year in the 13 weeks to 30 September 2006. Subscription connections were up 16.3% to 0.96m, as network promotions and the attractive handset pipeline continued to stimulate the market. Pre-pay connections were up 59.0% to 1.29m, reflecting a continuation of the trend witnessed over the previous six months.

We opened a further 66 net new stores in the period, taking the base to 1,921. We now expect to open a total of 300 net new stores in the current financial year. The Insurance business continued to perform well, with the base up 16.5% year-on-year to 2.06m.

Telecoms Services

Free broadband update
As at 30 September 2006, we had received 625,000 applications for free broadband. Of these, 516,000 are now live for calls and line rental, with 421,000 live on broadband as well. So far we have unbundled 370 exchanges, with a further 476 exchanges handed over by Openreach. We remain well on course for our target of 1,000 unbundled exchanges by May 2007.

20,000 broadband customers were on unbundled lines at the period end. Over the next three months we will start to use Openreach's bulk migration platform to transfer customers onto unbundled lines in significant volumes. We will update the market on progress at our interim results presentation on 2 November 2006.

We have made significant progress in relation to customer service levels over the last two months. Customers are now going live on broadband typically within 5 weeks of application, which includes the necessary time for arranging wholesale line rental, carrier pre-select and IP Stream transfers, and we expect to reduce connection periods further over the coming weeks. In addition, call centre response times have improved materially, with independent market research now indicating that waiting times are now among the lowest in the industry. We will continue to invest to make TalkTalk's customer service a positive differentiator.

Primarily as a result of the unexpectedly high demand for free broadband, we are set to incur additional costs in the current financial year amounting to approximately £20m. The three factors relating to this cost increase are the incremental wholesale broadband costs incurred across a larger base, delays to LLU migration and an acceleration in customer service costs. We expect these additional costs to have an impact in the current year only, with the immediate development of broadband customer profitability being dependent on the speed and quality of BT Openreach's processes for bulk migration to unbundled lines in the coming months.

Aside from the one-off acceleration in customer service costs, free broadband customer economics to date are evolving in line with previous guidance.

Other Fixed and Mobile operations
Trading in our existing TalkTalk UK residential operations has continued to be strong. The integration of the Onetel acquisition has now been completed ahead of schedule, and as a result of this and good underlying margin trends, we expect the existing customer bases to achieve profits for the year a little ahead of existing guidance. Our other Telecoms Services operations continued to perform in line with expectations.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Biscit Completes Acquisition of ISP V21

Communications service provider (CSP) Biscit today announces that it has completed the acquisition of V21.co.uk Limited. The acquisition enables Biscit to upsell its telecoms and combined phone and free superfast broadband services to V21's circa 33,000 customers, as well as other Internet products.

The board of V21 has stepped down and been replaced by Biscit's CEO, Hugh Paterson, its sales and product development director, Nathan Relevy, and its financial director and company secretary, Bill Homan-Russell. V21's auditors and legal advisers have also been replaced by Biscit's.

"Clearly, we're delighted with this acquisition and the opportunity to serve V21's resellers and end users," says Paterson. "The principal changes V21 customers will experience is greater choice in voice and superfast broadband services, and customer support from Biscit's in-house London teams instead of a call centre in India."

About Biscit

Biscit is a leading provider of advanced Internet and telecoms products and services. Delivering the online world to thousands of enterprise and residential customers, the award-winning company is committed to providing the highest level of network service to each customer every minute-of-the-year. Its flagship voice and superfast broadband bundles freeMAX Standard and freeMAX Unlimited compete directly with Carphone Warehouse's Talk Talk offering, and both are available now, nationwide. Visit www.biscit.net for further information.

Labels: biscit-broadband, v21-broadband

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Broadband is booming in Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire is ‘switching on’ to broadband in a big way – so much so that it is now one of the top areas in the UK when it comes to the numbers of homes and businesses using the high speed service.

Latest figures from BT puts the county sixth with 42 per cent connected, well ahead of the national average of 30.8 per cent. In the county more than 18,000 homes and businesses are now using ADSL broadband.

Buckinghamshire leads with 47 per cent followed by Aberdeenshire on 44 per cent. Flintshire in North Wales is 12th with 40 per cent take-up.

Every one of Monmouthshire’s 21 exchanges is broadband enabled with Abergavenny the first to go in April 2002. The final exchange to be enabled was Cross Ash as recently as September 8.

Ann Beynon, BT’s director Wales said the challenge was now to encourage greater use among the population as a whole.

“This is excellent news. But Monmouthshire’s success mirrors that of Wales as a whole which is one of the fastest growing parts of the UK in terms of broadband take-up with increasing numbers of homes and businesses realising the benefits the technology can bring.

“With more and more people using broadband new and exciting services online, the challenge is now to continue to develop increasingly compelling content to encourage even greater growth.”

Photographer Steve Pope, a broadband user from Caldicot, said the technology had made a huge difference to his business. “Once you start using broadband you wonder how you ever managed without it. So when I moved to the area, adsl broadband was one of the first things I ordered.

“Since photography has gone digital clients want their pictures the same day and because you are dealing with such large files, without broadband it would be totally impractical. I also have three PCs at home linked up to wi-fi which means no more fighting over one computer.”

BT broadband

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